This Ben Smith post about Obama’s media criticisms at Cronkite’s funeral is just flat-out bizarre:
But aside from the fact that he’s clearly been reading POLITICO, home of the (OK, slightly self-caricaturing) “Who won the day” feature, I always find this line of criticism somewhat odd. Obama won the Democratic primary in no small part by feeding and riding a media freakshow — driven in large part by the conservative media he now deplores — that devoured his main rival, Hillary Clinton. Drudge and the rest eventually turned against Obama, but he was a major ally in the primary, as Jonathan and I wrote at the time.
My memory of things is a touch different- I remember the right-wing media cheerleading for Hillary. She was far more acceptable to them than Obama (who can forget the very publicized and nauseating public tongue-kissing between her and John McCain). Additionally, the Clinton campaign got skewered a bit in the media because they made dozens and dozens of horrible mistakes, but it was the media who kept her campaign alive for several months after it was clear it was all over.
Am I misinterpreting this? It seemed to me Ben was claiming it was the media who made Obama. That just isn’t the case.
Quaker in a Basement
Limbaugh? Operation Chaos?
Any of this ringing a bell, Ben?
RS
Operation Chaos?
RS
@Quaker in a Basement:
Beat me to it.
Incertus
Oh, you’ve unleashed the fury of the PUMA crowd now, John. They’ll recite you chapter and verse of every instance the media gave Obama the benefit of the doubt (even when they didn’t) while utterly crucifying Clinton (which they often did), and call you a sexist all the while.
Zifnab
That was after Obama took the lead. BEFORE Obama took the lead, everyone from Dan Riehl to Rush Limbaugh was singing his praises. In fact, right after John McCain started regularly beating out Mitt Romney and Guiliani was circling the toilet, but before Hillary “won” Florida and we started hearing entirely too much about Super Delegates, Barack Obama was the right wing radio pundit protest vote of choice.
I wish I could go back and dig up all those juicy little tidbits, but you had everyone singing Obama’s praises because he was a black man running for President and no one thought he was going to win. If you listened very carefully, you could hear the wingnuts cranking up the “Democrats hate black people” organ grinder in the background, prepping the mat for his inevitable defeat.
Adam Collyer
The President hardly “rode the media freakshow” as a candidate. In fact, most the criticism levied at him was that he never came out and strongly rebuked his opponents on a day-to-day basis.
Senator and now-President Obama have the same media strategy. They take the long view. The White House doesn’t give a rat’s behind about “who won the day” or “who’s saying what to whom.” The media was responsible for the rise and fall of both the Clinton and McCain campaign – both were so concerned about what pundits like George Stephanopolis and Chris Matthews thought that they played right into their hands. When those campaigns “won the day,” it did nothing for them. But they subjected themselves to so much media scrutiny that when they were wrong and “lost,” they never recovered (see: Hillary and sniper fire, and McCain’s Palin selection).
Meanwhile, Obama just continued to slice and dice. His plan kept the media informed, but at bay.
Catsy
PUMAs? Fury? More like the fury of a hundred blind kittens.
Seriously, can anyone pinpoint the last month in which PUMA was relevant? I can’t. Teabaggers and birthers have more credibility and visibility.
General Winfield Stuck
Nope. But we live in a world of shapeshiftting facts, and Politico often leads that charge to create new angles of bullshit to write about.
The primary and election seems like a sleepy episode of Mr. Rogers compared with today, and into the near future.
Demo Woman
Ben is taking his cues from Rush and Drudge. He just wants a little love from the big boys.
Darius
Don’t mind Ben; he’s just pissy because Obama implicitly called out the shitty “journalism” that Politico (oh, I’m sorry, POLITICO!!) practices on a daily basis.
BFR
He just wants a little love from the big boys.
So messy!
Violet
When they speak of the “liberal media” in the tank for Obama, they usually reference Chris Matthews and that tingly feeling up his leg he got after some speech by Barack. You’ll still hear about that even now. Heck, you still hear about the Dean Scream, even though it’s been five years.
Demo Woman
@Zifnab: In Ohio, Rush don’t folks to vote for Hillary. If memory serves me, it’s an open primary.
The Bearded Blogger
@ Zifnab, 5
True dat. I think at one point the right was betting on Obama under the premise that America would never elect a black man named Hussein. As it turned out, only Merka would never elect a black man named Hussein. I think Sarah Palin is the current president of Merka
kay
Media should stop talking about themselves. It only reinforces the notion that their job has become all about them.
Demo Woman
@Demo Woman: edit, edit. Rush told folks to vote for Hillary…
Brachiator
@Zifnab:
Limbaugh singing Obama praises? I certainly missed that one.
I DO remember Edwards riding higher, and Obama largely being referred to as Barack Who? by those on the right.
GregB
Politic-hole.
Rat bastards, all of ’em. Especially the oily Mike Allen.
-G
Veritas78
Someday, perhaps, we will find out what was up with Politico. Until then, I’m not going to bother trying on my own. It’s become a “consider the source” opinion outlet, with no original news.
Alan
Didn’t Coulter say she would vote for Hillary over McCain. Hell, Hillary was the “movement’s” candidate.
Bokonon
Who you going to believe: POLITICO’s spin, or your lying eyes?
Demo Woman
The NYTimes has excerpts of Obama’s speech online. It’s not as forceful as it could be.
MikeJ
BBC news was just quoting sections of tonight’s speech. The bit about how Obama says he will not waste time with people who think it’s better to kill any health care bill than make it better.
The Bearded Blogger
@ 17, Brachiator
You know who spoke glowingly of Obama at the beginning of primary season? Tom Tancredo.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
myiq2xuGoatBoy arrives in 5, 4, 3. . .Relax, it’s just the media reorganizing history to fit the desired meme. Nothing new here…
Alan
@Demo Woman:
Of course it won’t be forceful, the guy is milquetoast. This speech is just an academic exercise. The real bill is being drawn up on K Street.
Comrade Darkness
I remember early on, distinctly, the media declaring Obama “Too White” to deserve the black vote. After that I ignored them as much as possible. All they do is chase process (generally their own, gags me with incestual naval gazing) rather than news. Real news bores the crap outta them, I think.
cleek
this makes no sense at all.
but it’s Ben Smith. so. you know.
Corner Stone
@Alan: Get thee behind me, Satan!
Darius
Media should stop talking about themselves. It only reinforces the notion that their job has become all about them.
It also reinforces the notion that they can’t handle even the slightest criticism.
Comrade Darkness
Hm, I happened upon a hitherto unidentified banned word. As Spock would say: fascinating.
SGEW
From the New York Times magazine, 12/21/08:
(emphasis added)
Ahem.
Comrade Darkness
Hey, everyone I found the list of WordPress banned words! And i n c e s t is on it. I have never received an email spam with that word. I must live a sheltered life.
valdivia
so is Balloon Juice comments the place were defeat is being declared ahead of the speech? gawd.
asiangrrlMN
Ben Smith can suck it. Give me a fucking break. He can also bite me. Gr.
Demo Woman
@Alan: Well I was hoping for was for Obama to call those in the audience who preach death panels are liars..maybe even fucking liars but that’s just me.
bobbo
If you go back and look at Somerby at the time, you will see that they definitely took Obama’s side against Hillary – not because they loved Obama, but because they hated Hillary. Timmeh and friends tore her apart at the debates, confronting her with things she never said, in order to pretend that she lied or flip-flopped. The defense was “we always do this to the front-runner,” but Somerby showed they certainly didn’t do it when W was the frontrunner in the 2000 primaries. The actual liberal media (Air America e.g.) and fair weather friends like Frank Rich also told us repeatedly what racists (!) the Clintons were. Another favorite was that Hillary had a “sense of entitlement,” presumably because she had the gall to run for president.
SGEW
@Comrade Darkness:
You can’t say “p h a r m a c y”? Hope we never want to discuss Federal restrictions on pharmacists’ pharmaceutical decisions in privately owned [redacted], especially if they want to prescribe [redacted], [redacted], or [redacted].
Alan
@Demo Woman:
Me two.
mantis
Apparently to Ben’s mind understanding how the media works and crafting your strategy accordingly means you should be thankful and beholden to them when you’re successful, despite their best efforts.
KG
sometimes I forget how much I truly loathe the 24 hour news cycle. Then I read something like this, and I realize that I don’t loathe the 24 hour news cycle enough. For fuck’s sake, these people seem to have no memory beyond the 24 hour news cycle. It’s like you’re 50-something friend that enjoyed the ’70s a little too much and now can only recall what happened by looking at faded Polaroids.
JenJen
Wasn’t Drudge the same outlet that ran with a sirened-up, front-page blockbuster Obama-In-Muslim-Garb photograph, handed to him by the Clinton campaign, on the eve of the Ohio and Texas Primaries?
And weren’t there aftermath-writeups galore about how cozy the Clintons seemed to be with the Drudge Machine, which initially leaked the Lewinsky Affair, and how weird and hypocritical all of that was?
Or am I living in my own, personal simulation? Someone, please let me know. Thanks in advance.
CT
Is he seriously suggesting that Obama won the Democratic primary “in no small part” because he fed the conservative media (Fox, NY Post, etc.) machine, which “devoured” Hillary. I would never have thought that Fox et al had so much pull in Democratic primaries. See, here’s where an example or two would be nice, because in searching for examples, you just might find that you’re full of sh!t. I can’t think of any big media (conservative or otherwise) driven firestorm that “devoured” HRC prior to Iowa, after which all bets were off, and Obama’s superior strategy re: caucuses carried the day.
Besides, is it really a controversial statement that today’s media is more superficial and prone to playing up controversy at all cost? What’s the ratio of presentation of facts to blowhardy, pull-it-out-your-ass gasbaggery on CNN, never mind something like politico, who doesn’t even aspire to cover news.
IndyLib
Are they fucking kidding? You mean the media freakshow that played endless loops of the same Jeremiah Wright clips over and over again.
Ever wonder what would have happened if the media cretins had decided they didn’t liked Obama’s Philidelphia speech? I always felt like they had already decided that they were going to praise the speech before he even gave it, because it fit their story arc of him overcoming a “serious problem”, but that if they had decided on a different arc, they would have trashed the speech, no matter what he said.
AB
Actually, the media “makes” a ton of stuff. Like the myth about McCain being Mr. Bipartisan Maverick. And spreading over and over all the lies about health care, climate change, lack of bipartisanship in Washington, etc.
These guys have their heads so far up their butts, its worse than sad.
General Winfield Stuck
or c a s i [email protected]valdivia:
Dems don’t like disappointment, so they pre-surrender to the thrill of defeat. It’s all very fraudian.
Kris
@BFR:
LOL
JenJen
@Demo Woman: Rush absolutely implored his Ohio listeners to switch their registrations and vote for Hillary in our Open Primary. I wrote about this just the other day here in another thread, and how my voting experience that day was diminished by all the Dittoheads in line with me, laughing about how excited they were to vote Democrat for the first time.
Rush called it “Operation Chaos.” Your memory is accurate, Demo Woman. :-)
GregB
OT.
The hijacker in Mexico was on a mission from God. He was armed with a bible and was inspired by a revelation.
Hallelujah.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090909/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_hijacking
-G
jnfr
The media didn’t get Obama elected. All of us ordinary people who spent hours and days and weeks working for him, calling our neighbors, visiting their houses, getting out the votes on Election Day – we got him elected. It wasn’t the media who turned my county, Jefferson County, Colorado, into Democratic territory for the first time in 30ish years. It was people like me and my husband who made that happen.
Quaker in a Basement
Obama-In-Muslim-Garb photograph, handed to him by the Clinton campaign
Yes, Jen, you did see those writeups about the Clintons getting cozy with Drudge. And no, those writeups never delivered the facts.
Drudge always gave a very carefully worded account of how he acquired that photo. He never said it was given to him by the Clinton campaign. He said the photo was being circulated by the Clinton campaign. He never said where he got it.
The Bearded Blogger
@ 46, the General
“It’s all very fraudian…”, is kind of freudian. Do you mean a lot of elected democrats are a fraud? I think there may be some twenty honest senators in total (all dems)
geg6
Poor little pudgy JMart got dissed by the preznit! Care for a little cheese, Jonathan? And, oh by the way, bite me. When Hilary sat down with Richard Mellon Scaife and the editorial staff of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and acted all buddy-buddy with them and Scaife came out of it praising her to the skies, I knew what was what and that I would never, never, never, never vote for her. First, because Scaife is the biggest ratfucker on earth, so it’s a general principle to assume he is ratfucking at all times. And second, I can’t fully respect someone who could forget what he has done to her and hers. No fucking way could I calmly sit down and court his favor. I’d be getting all John Cole on the mofo and punching him in the neck. Perhaps numerous times, just for kicks.
Alan
Come to think of it, didn’t Hannity go balls to the wall with Rev. Wright on FNC well before Obama won the nomination?
The Bearded Blogger
@ 50, jnfr
Yeah… to media people, little people are more or less what media people are to little people, that is, random faces on TV with no real substance behind them…
Bob In Pacifica
I used to have a link to Politico for some reason I can’t remember.
As I remember the media freakshow, after Hillary’s public tongue-kissing of John McCain in front of a stage full of generals and admirals, and after the big crap explosion over flag pins, there was something like four or five months of Reverend Wright and promises of Ms. Obama on tape dissing whitey. There was some cartoon on the cover of The New Yorker. At some point there was former CIA propagandist (really, look it up) Gloria Steinem writing op-eds about how white women had it worse than black men and former CIA operative Larry Johnson saying how Michelle O. was a racist. Didn’t she write a paper about it at Princeton? Then there was a former CIA undercover darling for Brewster Jennings touring every radio talkshow for her book and singing the praises of Hillary.
There was Operation Chaos. There was something about the Texas and Ohio primaries and Rush.
I’ll try to remember harder.
valdivia
@General Winfield Stuck:
but this is exhausting. are liberals going to get pre-disappointed when Obama signs the bill as well?
General Winfield Stuck
@The Bearded Blogger:
Whimsical wordplay. In some way, we are all frauds, and freudian. It is written.
slag
To be honest, John, I’ve never understood what you like about Ben Smith. At best, he is concern trollish, and most often, he is just gossipy. I can’t think of a single post from him that I’ve found useful.
kay
@Bob In Pacifica:
This is hysterical and an accurate portrayal of that primary.
JenJen
@Quaker in a Basement: Thanks! I was pretty sure I was still in touch with reality, and appreciate the confirmation. :-)
I’m also thinking about that time Obama met with Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, where, according to Richard Wolffe’s book “Renegade”, Murdoch and Ailes urged the candidate to end his de facto boycott of Fox News, and the candidate asked in exchange that Fox News end its (unofficial) campaign against his wife, Michelle.
Obama went on Bill O’Reilly’s show, and the day after it aired, Murdoch’s NY Post issued its triumphant, front page endorsement: “The POST today enthusiastically endorses urges the election of John S. McCain.”
So sure. Obama tried to get a little cozy with right-wing media, gave them what they asked for, and got zip in return. And that, apparently, leads Ben Smith to believe that Obama only now deplores the conservative media which has been oh-so-generous to him.
“Drudge… was a major ally in the primary in the primary, as Jonathan and I wrote at the time.”
Doesn’t make it true, Ben. Doesn’t make it true.
General Winfield Stuck
@valdivia:
Yes, it will soon be forgotten and the next round of hand wringing will begin on the next issue. Just as wingnuts seem to always need an enemy to function, so do dems. It’s just that we only trust ourselves to be a worthy foe.
linda
don’t forget rev wright and the very concerted effort to use that against obama; but the public wasn’t interested, much to the chagrin of the cable yakkers.
had mccain not selected palin, (who inevitably imploded and scared the shit out of the media) they would have supported st johnny all the way to the white house. they still cling to his maverickiness.
geez, where’s tweety — missing a joint session of congress.
Meg
I have stopped reading Ben Smith long ago.
I can’t stand his false equivalence reporting on McSame/Palin’s campaign smear war (eg. Obama team does negative campaign, too).
Now he wants to stir mistrust between Obama and Cliton again after they have made good with each other. What an a$$.
JenJen
My post #61 could use some editing.
Flashback to, say, January 2009:
“Hi, Balloon-Juicers. Nice editing button ya got there. Would be a shame if something were to happen to it.”
ronin122
@Darius: Now now, why compare POLITICO to shit? I mean, excretion is necessary for healthy living, and yes while it can pollute and give us nasties like parasites, we can use shit as fertilizer to grow food. I think your comparison is insulting to feces everywhere.
ppcli
Whatever may have been the tendencies of the media at large, the right-wing Fox news/Mellon Scaife crowd were slavering about how fabulous Hillary was. I assumed that they were confident that they could beat her, given her unfavourables, plus no doubt lots of juicy material they had in the coolers, to distract people from the catastrophe that was the Bush years. Then suddenly Barack takes the lead and they realize that they have absolutely no idea for a plausible winning game plan. So the floodgates opened and “Hilary has grown, she’s experienced, a great stateswoman, etc.” came pouring out. I heard *Karl Rove* talking her up repeatedly on Fox, fer chrissakes.
Amusing memory: at one point I saw a commercial in which the Republicans were trying to link up Obama with hated Senators, presumably on the theory that Americans hated Congress even more than they hate Bush. But they couldn’t use a picture of Ted Kennedy – dying of cancer, too much potential backlash. And they couldn’t use Hillary – *praising* Hillary was part of the game plan. But there went the two guaranteed Repub-hate-generators. So they had to flash up pictures of Chris Dodd and Harry Ried, and some other guy I didn’t even recognize. How pathetic is that: when you are trying to scarify the heartland with Chris Dodd, you know your bag of tricks is absolutely empty.
Origuy
@GregB: A Bolivian Christian fanatic with a juice can? No biggie. A Somali Muslim fanatic with a juice can? Juice cans banned from airport terminals!
john F. Loehr
So what is Ben’s point: that the conservative media made Obama and therefore he owes the wingnut media should be grateful and conciliatory to the same people who wire up the birthers and death panelists? That Obama got the nomination by cleverly working the conservative media? That the conservative media cleverly helped nominate Obama because he was the weaker candidate and would be beaten in the general election?
Oh, I forgot what I often tell clients: You’re looking for rationality and reason from a irrational source.
aimai
Yes @69, the point is that the conservative media freak show gave him the presidency, so he should be more grateful.
aimai
RadioOne
The media definitely piled on front-runner Hillary Clinton from Decmeber 2007, when the campaign made some serious and inexcusable mistakes, until February 2008, when it was obvious that the Democratic nominee was going to be Obama. After February and the Wisconsin primary, the right-wing media did a complete 180 and started going solely after Obama, to make sure the primary drama lasted as long as politically feasible. Which is why you remember the right-wing cheerleading for Hillary in the aftermath of the primaries.
Mnemosyne
@Quaker in a Basement:
My guess? Mark Penn. Because he’s just that kind of asshole.
bedtimeforbonzo
My memory is completely different than John Cole’s, and perhaps it is colored because I was Hillary supporter.
But I don’t think so.
I can’t remember the media — all except Fox — fawning over a candidate the way they fawned over Candidate Obama.
They fell in love with this guy, Mr. Cole. But see it as you wish.
Just go back during the primaries and check out of the Obama covers on Newsweek and Time — Zach Efron did not get that many over the same span on Teen Beat.
bedtimeforbonzo
“When they speak of the ‘liberal media’ in the tank for Obama, they usually reference Chris Matthews and that tingly feeling up his leg he got after some speech by Barack.”
First, Matthews certainly is not part of the right-wing media.
And he did say that Obama’s speech gave him a tingly feeling up his leg.
I remember hearing him saying it, practically falling off my chair, then remembering that’s what makes Matthews, or Tweety, as he is called here, genuine — he ain’t prepackaged and says what he’s feeling at the time. And on that occasion, Barack Obama sent tingles up his spine — er, leg.
Now try to say the MSM — which Matthews is part of — didn’t fall in love with Obama.
In fact, Keith Obermann fell in love the hardest. Hillary Clinton’s toughest critic, he sucked Obama’s dick nightly, and only began to criticize him until recently.
I usually don’t comment until I’ve read a thread in its entirety, so Zifnab, I was relieved to see that at least one other person remembers this lovefest the MSM had with Candidate Obama.
bedtimeforbonzo
This just in:
Linda Tripp just produced the stained blue suit of Keith Obermann’s with Obama’s cum stains on it.
RadioOne
lol- the insane birther-Hillary primary supporter commentators come out now in full force
bedtimeforbonzo
I voted for President Obama, RadioOne.
I’m just writing it as I remember living it.
bedtimeforbonzo
“Just go back during the primaries and check out of the Obama covers on Newsweek and Time—Zach Efron did not get that many over the same span on Teen Beat.”
Call me a liar.
So I can go to bed.
Thanks.
Or as Obermann would say, after he tucked the Candidate Obama in: “Good night and good luck.”
p mac
I seem to recall that Obama won with a good 50-state ground game–pick up overwhelming majorities in the “less important” states, and do adequately well in the upmarket states. I don’t see how the press comes into this at all. Clinton’s campaign was disorganized; Obama brought in the “grownups.”
bedtimeforbonzo
p mac: You are right. But John noted: “It seemed to me Ben was claiming it was the media who made Obama.”
My assertion, along with Zifnab, was not that the media made Obama, but I do not think it hurt, that in the primaries, that they fawned all over him, rarely asking a tough question.
Obama’s 50-state strategy turned out to be brilliant. It allowed him to build that huge early delegate lead to the point where a strong showing on Super Tuesday was a non-starter for Clinton, who does not get credit, it seems, for finishing strong at the end. (If I remember correctly, the popular vote in the primaries was nearly 50-50.)
Of course, Obama did select Clinton as his Secretary of State.
I did not assign ulterior motives for him picking Hillary. I think he simply recognized her talent and saw that she could be a team player, which was contrary to popular opinion.
Mnemosyne
@bedtimeforbonzo:
He sure ain’t a liberal. Don’t you remember his flightsuit orgasm? Matthews likes manly manly men, which unfortunately means he hated Hillary with a passion. It has nothing to do with right-wing or left-wing, just what makes Matthews’ dick twitch.
I know it’s a fine line we’re drawing, but just because the press slammed Hillary, it doesn’t mean that Obama was given a free pass (Wright, Ayers, “whitey tape,” elitist vacation in Hawaii, etc. etc. etc.) If one person gets their arm cut off and another person only gets their hand cut off, did the person who lost a hand get a “free pass”?
Xanthippas
Uh, I don’t think so. Clinton was the recipient of one right-wing attack after another, usually of the sexist or otherwise disgusting variety. There were some right-wing pundits who favored some of her positions over Obama’s (especially in foreign policy) but most right-wing media excoriated her.
Rick Taylor
I disagree with this point. The Republicans were interested in a divided Democratic field. The more rancor and internal hostility, the better. They supported Hillary Clinton only when it became obvious Obama was in the lead and the candidate to beat, and she was running hard to tear him down. If Clinton had been in the lead and Obama had been running a desperate campaign with little hope of success but lots of potential to divide Democrats, they would have supported him just as readily. In fact, I think they did lean towards him before it became evident he was probably going to win.